Psychotactics

Why Clients Buy—And Why They Don't

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Philosophy
    • About Psychotactics
    • Contact Sean
  • Free Articles
    • Psychological Strategies
    • Starting Up Strategies
    • Marketing Strategies
    • Article Writing Strategies
    • Copywriting Strategies
    • Internet Marketing Strategies
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Clients
    • Client Results
  • Products
    • Start Here First
    • Home Study
      • Article Writing
      • Uniqueness Strategy
      • Info Products
      • Copywriting
    • Books
      • Brain Audit
      • Under $50
      • Above $200
    • Membership
  • Workshops
    • Online Courses
    • Worldwide Workshops and Meet-Ups
  • Services
    • Speaker
    • Consulting
  • Fun Stuff
    • Resources
    • Cartoons
    • Recipes

How To Kill Interruptions When You’re Speaking

Author: Sean D'Souza

speaking interruptions, speaker

You're about halfway through your speaking engagement, all fired up, and then it happens…

Someone in the audience wants to ask a question.
This question, basic as it may be, kills your rhythm.

It distracts the flow of the information for the rest of the audience.

And worse, it opens a floodgate of questions.
Before you know it, your speech has lost its momentum. The audience is restless.

And you'd like to throttle that person that raised his hand. Because it's all his fault that the presentation has gone astray.

But is it really his fault?

Or is it yours?
You're the speaker.
You're the one who has to lay down the ground rules.

If you don't lay down the ground rules, the audience has no rules.

In the absence of rules, an audience will take arbitrary decisions. And those decisions can quite easily ruin your speech. And not just ruin your speech, but irritate the audience as well.

Why would the audience be irritated?
When someone interrupts you, there's no way to control the question.
And if you feel compelled to answer, that encourages others to ask questions as well.

In every instance, the audience is there to hear you speak. Not for the speech to become a question-answer session. So if you're going to have a question-answer session, you must make it very clear to the audience when to ask the questions.

I cut interruptions with a simple outline right at the top of my speech
I do the following by telling the audience:

1) How long the session will last.
2) What to do if they have questions.
3) When I'll answer their questions.
4) Kill the painful mobile phone interruption with humour.
5) Move on to the main agenda

This simple five-step process is delivered in a matter of minutes
And it works exceedingly well to control an audience, and prevents them from interrupting your speech.

But what if someone still interrupts?
Listen to the audio below to find out how to prevent the ‘persistent interruption'.

Question: So how would you deal with interruptions? Any ideas? How have you dealt with interruptions before?

To get a direct podcast delivered from iTunes (so you don’t miss any of the episodes) click on this link

Next Human Nature Article: Momentum vs. Speed
Next Step: Read actionable articles on human nature.

Oh and before I go

If you haven't yet subscribed: Here are the links to get all the Psychotactics articles, goodies and podcasts automatically.

iTunesAndroidSpotifyE-mail (and get special goodies)RSS

The Headline Report

The Headline Report has been downloaded over 155,000 times. In ten minutes (or less) you’ll learn how to systematically build a headline that works. Click on the button below to get a detailed report on "Why headlines fail (And how to create headlines that work)".

Get the Headline Report

Filed Under: Human Nature, podcasts Tagged With: heckler, interruptions, psychotactics, speaker, speaking, speaking tips

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

What Bugs Me small business marketing bugs

Does anything on this website bug you? Nothing is too small or too big. If there's something we can fix, we'd love to know. The bug of the month even gets a hand-painted cartoon + postcard. Click here to report a bug.

The Headline Report why headlines fail report

The Headline Report has been downloaded over 155,000 times. In ten minutes (or less) you’ll learn how to systematically build a headline that works. Sign up for the Psychotactics newsletter and get access to a detailed report on "Why Headlines Fail (And how to create headlines that work)" Click here to subscribe and get it right away

PSYCHOTACTICS

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

sean@psychotactics.com | Skype | Privacy

Copyright © 1999 - 2023 PsychoTactics Limited. Website Development StressLessWeb

  • Home
  • About Us
    ▼
    • Philosophy
    • About Psychotactics
    • Contact Sean
  • Free Articles
    ▼
    • Psychological Strategies
    • Starting Up Strategies
    • Marketing Strategies
    • Article Writing Strategies
    • Copywriting Strategies
    • Internet Marketing Strategies
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Clients
    ▼
    • Client Results
  • Products
    ▼
    • Start Here First
    • Home Study
      ▼
      • Article Writing
      • Uniqueness Strategy
      • Info Products
      • Copywriting
    • Books
      ▼
      • Brain Audit
      • Under $50
      • Above $200
    • Membership
  • Workshops
    ▼
    • Online Courses
    • Worldwide Workshops and Meet-Ups
  • Services
    ▼
    • Speaker
    • Consulting
  • Fun Stuff
    ▼
    • Resources
    • Cartoons
    • Recipes